Being a professional home inspector is not an easy gig. We find ourselves in the unenviable position of trying to appease different parties (the buyers, sellers, listing and selling agents), each with their own different, and often conflicting, motivations. This information should be top of mind when we are performing inspections and writing reports.
Our reports matter, and not just to our buyers. The information that we provide to them and their agent, that inspection report, is a written legal document, and it must do a lot more than simply serve as a record of our findings.
Obviously, it has to provide details about the results of our inspection. We need to describe what we see in order for others to understand what we know. But we’re not simply providing information for information’s sake; this information is provided to our client, the buyer, in order for them to better evaluate their potential purchase. If we’ve done our job correctly, we’ve provided them with enough information to help them feel comfortable in that decision.
We should also remain mindful of the fact that our inspection reports also provide us with protection, as every real estate deal carries some level of risk that it will degenerate into a legal matter. If a buyer is unhappy after purchasing a home, it’s quite likely that they’ll sue everyone involved in the transaction, including inspectors and agents.
Keeping this point in mind, it’s in our best interest to provide our clients with an appropriate amount of information. The worst thing we can do is to not provide our paying customers with the information they thought they were getting.
The $64,000 questions then becomes, “How much is too much information?” As everyone has their own ideas of what’s most important when they’re buying a house, it can be tough to nail down exactly how much information is needed in an inspection report. Every inspector needs to define where that line lies for them and their business model.
As a failsafe in my own business, I try to look at things from the point of view of the average homeowner. If there is something that I think the average person would want to know about a house before they buy it, then I will include it in my report. If I fail to notify my clients about something, then sooner or later, when that thing becomes a problem, they’re going to be unhappy.
For example, if a “new” house has a 20-year old air conditioning system, and according to Angi’s List, the average life expectancy of an AC in south Louisiana is less than 15 years, the odds of a homeowner facing the upcoming expense of replacing their HVAC equipment is quite high. While no one, including your friendly, neighborhood home inspector, can predict the future, we can provide useful information to help increase the chances of a good outcome for everyone involved.
It’s a fine line that inspectors have to walk. We need to balance between giving our clients too little and too much information to process. All too often, we’re accused of telling our clients too much. “Do you really have to put that in the report?” is an often-heard refrain from real estate agents.
From an inspector’s point of view, as well as from an agent’s, there is a lot of liability involved in each transaction. Things can pivot from good to disastrous in fairly short order. Ensuring that we provide our clients with the right information is one of the easiest things we can do to increase the odds of a good outcome. Including the right amount of information in our inspection report helps to protect everyone involved, now and in the future.
If we help our client make better-informed decisions, it lessens the chances that they’ll experience regret in the future, and that makes life easier for everyone involved.
Educating our clients not only helps produce better outcomes, it all serves another important function, as it helps build trust between us and our clients. If we are able to educate our clients, they’re more likely to view us as an authority figure, a resource to be drawn upon when needed.
When something does break with their new home, it’s much better for everyone involved if the homeowner is contacting their trusted inspector for advice, rather than calling them to get their insurance information to turn over to their attorney.
It’s tough striking a professional balance, trying to satisfy so many different needs using the same inspection product. We often (unwittingly) find ourselves in the middle of a discussion about whether or not someone should buy a house, and all too often they’re looking to us for advice.
Even though we need to remain vigilant about offering purchase advice, it shouldn’t stop us from arming our paying customers with as much helpful information as we can. Our home-buying clients are looking to us for clarity regarding a big decision, and we need to do everything we can to make sure their other decision (to hire us) works out like they hoped it would.
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Thanks, Joe
